Mr Monk Loses His Memory
by FanWriterWV
Summary: An idea I had. What if Monk temporarily became an amnessiac?


**Mr. Monk Loses His Memory**

Jimmy was a solitary man. That was why he liked the alley; people didn't bother him. Most people ignored him anyway, but at least here he felt like was "Home." So why was the nervous little guy in the funny brown jacket bugging him?

"That coffee cup…it's already been used."

Jimmy nodded. "I know. But it's mine now, and you can't have it."

"Oh, I don't want it…I just thought I'd point out that it, um, seems a little unsanitary."

"We're in an alley next to a dumpster. How sanitary do you expect it to be?" The large African-American's eyes narrowed. "You're not from around here. I ain't ever seen you before. You a cop or something?"

The little guy seemed to ponder that for a moment. "No, I'm not a policeman. At least, I don't think so…" Something seemed to be nagging him. "I do have one question, though."

Jimmy sighed. Whoever the guy was, he wasn't a cop, and he could smell them a mile away. He looked like he'd escaped from a Woody Allen movie, or the loony bin. "Sure, man. What is it?"

"Could you please tell me who I am???"

"What do you mean, Adrian is missing?" Captain Stottlemeyer raised his eyebrows. "I thought you said he was going to meet a client."

"That's just it." Natalie fidgeted slightly. "Mr. Monk was supposed to call me when he got to the client's address but that was this morning and I haven't heard from him since. I know I'm supposed to wait twenty-four hours before filing a missing persons report, but…"

"It's OK, I understand. This is Monk we're talking about. Randy?"

"Yeah, boss?" Lieutenant Disher appeared in Leland's doorway.

"Monk seems to have gone missing on us. Can you help Natalie out?"

"Adrian's disappeared?" Randy looked surprised. "Well, that's not like him. He'll occasionally hide from us, but…"

"Please, this is serious," Natalie implored. "I'm really worried." She filled him in on the details-the client that Monk was supposed to meet, and where.

"OK, we'll start there, then. It sounds like one of the Bay Area's nicer neighborhoods. He'd stick out like a sore thumb; somebody was bound to have noticed him!"

The nineteenth-century house was in one of San Francisco's historic districts, but the man who answered the door swore that Monk had left of his own free will and that he hadn't seen him since.

"I told him we could only discuss my problem here at my house. He said he'd look into it and then he left. I don't know where he went."

"What exactly was your problem, Mr…?" Randy asked.

"Davenport. Arnold Davenport. Uh, just a small divorce matter. My ex-wife owes me money and I thought Mr. Monk could help me find out where she was hiding it."

Natalie looked at him while Disher wrote that down. "And you say Monk left? How? He doesn't have a car."

"Uh, he took a cab down here. He must have left on foot and gotten another one. Hey, am I a suspect? Because I can call my lawyer…"

Natalie was about to say something when Randy interrupted. "No, Mr. Davenport. We just need to find Mr. Monk so he can corroborate your story. I'm sure this is just a mix-up."

"Why didn't you ask him more questions?" Natalie asked as they left Mr. Davenport's house. "He looked really shifty to me. He didn't act like a client. And believe me, Mr. Monk and I have dealt with some shifty people."

"Calm down. I noticed something when we were going up the steps." Randy withdrew a small plastic bag. "See this? Its dirt-I found it on the sidewalk. There was part of a shoeprint there."

"You mean that's from one of Adrian's shoes? But he wouldn't deliberately step in dirt…" Then she looked at Randy as realization dawned.

"Right," Randy grimly replied. "Unless somebody made him do it."

The cafeteria made him uncomfortable, but then everything seemed to make his new "Friend" uncomfortable. "Are you gonna eat that, or just keep playing with it?" Jimmy asked, pointing at the little guy's food.

"I'm just trying to rearrange the carrots into their proper proportions," the little guy explained. "You see, some of these slices are a little bigger than the others so they have to be grouped by size…"

Jimmy sighed. "Man, they must love you wherever you come from." In a more sympathetic tone he asked, "Your memory come back at all yet?"

The guy shook his head. "It's all…jumbled. I see bits and pieces, faces I think I'm supposed to know, but then there are these huge blank areas…it's very frustrating." He looked down at the carrots; he'd stacked them into neat piles. "Well, I seem to have an eye for detail, at least."

"Yeah, that and then some. Well, what do you remember?"

The man frowned in concentration. "I was coming down the street. I had a huge headache. I needed some rest, so I found the alley. There was a cardboard box there; I straightened it up…then I straightened it up again…and I decided to take a nap."

"You don't look like you come from around here," Jimmy offered. "Maybe a cab dropped you off. You could have people looking for you. I'll ask around; maybe we can get your picture taken and show it around the neighborhood."

"Thanks, I appreciate that. Why are you helping me, anyway?"

Jimmy shrugged. "I wasn't always like this. After I got out of the service, I lost my job. When I was in the Marines we were always taught to look out for our buddies. Now, you ain't my buddy…but you look like you could get hurt if you're not careful around here. So, I guess I'm the one who's gotta look out for you."

"You're kidding! You've seen him? When?" Natalie almost hugged the cab driver.

"Hey, senora, I'm a married man! Yeah, I saw him-his picture, anyway. Some black guy-a homeless guy-was showing it around in the mission district. Short guy, curly hair, looked kind of nervous?"

"That's him, all right. Thanks; we'll take it from here." Randy gave the cabbie a card with a number to call if he had any more information. "The mission district…what the heck would Adrian be doing all the way down there?"

"When we find hem, we'll ask him." Natalie tugged at his arm. "Come on, Mr. Monk is waiting for us!"

"Yes, ma'am," Randy gulped as they got back into his car.

The ride to Doctor Kroger's office had been quiet, for the most part. Natalie laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Adrian. It'll come back to you. Dr. Kroger will be able to help. He said over the phone that he can hypnotize you to bring your memory back."

"Thanks, um…Natalie." Adrian looked at her nails. "No offense, but I think those need polishing."

Randy laughed. "At least some things about you haven't changed."

At Dr. Kroger's office, Randy, Natalie and Leland, who'd been called with the welcome news that Monk had been found, watched with fascination as Adrian was hypnotized under Kroger's experienced care. Monk seemed to hear his psychiatrist's voice as if it were coming from very far away. "And now you're at the client's house…"

Monk's eyes suddenly opened. "It worked!" he exclaimed. He hugged Natalie. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He almost hugged Dr. Kroger, but restrained himself, shaking his hand instead. "OK," Monk held out his hands. "Here's what happened! I had gone to meet Mr. Davenport as planned, but when I got there he was very evasive about his ex-wife. While we were in his living room, I noticed that there was some dirt on the floor leading into the kitchen…"

"The same dirt I found on the sidewalk?" Randy interjected.

"Exactly. He wasn't trying to find his ex-wife; he was looking for someone to take the blame for killing her when actually he had done it the day before and hidden her body somewhere in the back yard. He must have just picked my name out of the classifieds in the newspaper; it could have been a pizza delivery boy for all we know. Anyway, I showed up, Mr. Davenport started telling me about his ex-wife and how she was hiding money from him. When I turned my back to leave, he struck me on the head and told the cabbie-which he'd paid off-to dump my body somewhere."

Natalie nodded. "Well, you were very lucky you met Jimmy. We should do something for him; he's a veteran after all."

"I talked to the Veteran's Administration," Leland replied. "I don't know if they can help him get his old job back, but I'll make sure he has some way of getting back on his feet again."

"Thank you, Leland, I appreciate that." Adrian accepted a congratulatory handshake from his friend. As he and Natalie left Dr. Kroger's office, he asked, "By the way…you didn't happen to get any canned carrots at the store for me, did you?"

THE END


End file.
